Sex in the Library

Of all the news stories coming out of libraries, this is the strangest one I’ve seen for a while. It lacks some of the more depressing elements of some recent stories, but has lots of sex and drama.

I mean, alleged sex and drama.

A library employee in Estancia, NM was fired from her library job, ostensibly for going on leave and not returning her key to the library during the leave, because that’s totally an offense worth firing someone over.

She received a letter from the mayor informing her. Yes, the mayor herself. Estancia is a rather small town. According to the letter:

Your refusal to turn over town property upon request and as required to ensure uninterrupted library services shows a lack of cooperation and willingness to work with supervisors. This behavior constitutes insubordination and jeopardizes the Town’s ability to serve its citizens.

Wow, that’s a lot of potential damage from one little key. It’s almost like they were looking for a reason to fire the woman.

And that’s what she claims. Why being fired? She claims it’s because she found the head librarian and a maintenance worker having sex together. On the floor. In the children’s section of the library.

I have to say, that takes the old Annoyed Librarian Porn Challenge to a new level. That’s the challenge I have to any library claiming Internet porn in the library is fine and dandy. The challenge is to subscribe to a porn magazine and place it in the children’s section.

If the alleged sex happened, that definitely surpasses the challenge. Why bother with Internet porn when you can just put on a live sex show! It’s not reported whether children were present, but I’m assuming not. Otherwise we’d have witnesses.

According to the fired employee, she reported the, um, indiscretion to the mayor, who allegedly said it wouldn’t have an effect on her job. We’re not told whether fingers were crossed at the time, or whether the mayor meant it wouldn’t have an effect because it wouldn’t be her job anymore. Language can be so delightfully ambiguous.

She’s suing the town, claiming to be a whistleblower who was wrongfully terminated.

We can’t know the true facts of the situation, but firing someone for not turning over a key during a leave is a pretty weak excuse for firing someone. Still, there’s not any danger of her walking in on library sex anymore, if any is happening.

If someone was fired for good cause, this is also quite a story just to make up. The head librarian having sex with a city maintenance worker in the children’s section of the library is pretty strong stuff.

On the other hand, that’s a pretty weird place to have sex, even if they were cheating or something. Wouldn’t the librarian have an office? Even in a small library, there have to be more private places to have sex than the floor of the children’s section. Even if not, that stuff belongs in the adult section at the very least. So is the sex story plausible?

Hopefully, we can all learn some lessons from this alleged escapade.

First of all, if you catch the head librarian having sex on the floor of the children’s section, whip out your phone and snap a picture, for pete’s sake. This serves several purposes. It provides evidence if any is needed later, and if posted to the library’s Facebook page would probably draw in a lot of visitors.

Second of all, if you don’t get some hard evidence, then maybe keep mum about the whole thing. Just back away slowly and pretend you never saw anything.

Third, if you’re going to have sex in the library, don’t have it in the children’s section. That’s just gross.

It should always happen in the adult book stacks, preferably in the erotica section. And if your library doesn’t have an erotica section, then you should create one in order to have a good place for library sex.

Comments

“Third, if you’re going to have sex in the library, don’t have it in the children’s section. That’s just gross.”

Agreed. With all the bugs and gunk those kids carry around and get on everything with their pawing and gnawing there’s no telling what you’re rolling around in while having a little indiscretionary fun time on the clock.

I laughed out loud at this story!!!!No one has ever been fired for the simple fact that he or she has not returned a key. (Copies of keys are made every day at the local hardware store.) But…the one thing that gets me is the lack of respect for the children’s section. Come on, now!!!! Winnie the Pooh is looking at you.

AL, speaking of sex in the library, some mom (Megan Fox) handed out flyers in front of the Orland Park Public Library minutes from ALA’s home office, with permission from the police, to protest the unreported sex crimes in the library, and, are you sitting down, the library director made a 911 call to the police to stop her freedom of speech!

the Children’s area is probably the best place to have sex: the cardboard castle is there so that’s where I can feel like a princess: “someday my prince will come.” – yes, that was the worst joke I could manage.

If you’re a certain type of person, I imagine the children’s section is the perfect place to get it on. What’s more titillating than having sex while Junie B. Jones and Curious George look on? That’s my answer to the question of whether it’s weird to do that in the children’s section. Some people get turned on by the scandalous/danger element.

This song is all about having sex in libraries – there’s even a bit about having sex in the children’s section: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj4Mo6TvfNQ. Probably not suitable for loud playing in the, um, children’s section.

Am I alone in finding it incredibly annoying when new sources refer to someone as “Head Librarian.” Is that library director? Is that head of Reference, Children’s Tech Services? What does it even mean, and why am I letting it get to me?

There’s an obvious joke to be had with the title “Head Librarian,” but I am just going to point to it because it’s too obvious.

The Librarienne, I think it’s an older term for when libraries were smaller and often not connected across geographic region. In those days, “head librarians” were in charge of the library in their small town or neighborhood. When different libraries started to form networks, those “head librarians” either became a “branch manager” or “director” depending on their experience/ ability to betray others.

My work in a public library was in a smaller town, and I still heard the term quite a bit. It doesn’t surprise me that this terms would still be common parlance in small towns.

I lost a job (in sci-tech publishing) over something similar so I totally believe this. I saw my boss having sex with her boss during a professional conference (on a beach, at night). And she saw me seeing her. The harassment just got worse and worse until I quit.

I am professional from India . I find an interesting reading of such things happening in US libraries. In India its strange thing to happen. Perhaps Never not heard of it. I believe a lot of things are cultural perhaps.